Italian member of parliament blasts national broadcaster for bias on ‘anti-homophobia’ bill
A Sicilian member of the Italian parliament has blasted the nation’s public broadcaster over bias in favor of the pending “anti-homophobia” bill after the broadcaster abruptly canceled an appearance by a prominent opponent of the bill.
On November 3rd, RAI TV (Radiotelevisione Italiana) aired a program that was advertised as a debate on the issue of homophobia with Giancarlo Cerrelli, the vice president of the Unione Giuristi Cattolici (Union of Catholic Lawyers). But at the last moment, the broadcaster withdrew its invitation, and the mother of a homosexual boy was substituted.
PDL Deputy Alessandro Pagano blasted RAI TV, saying that while the mainstream media may have “a vested interest to disclose a positive and reassuring image of the LGBT lobby,” RAI should be held to a different standard as the ostensible representative of the whole country. Instead, they have demonstrated “a partial and ideological perspective” on an issue that is “sensitive and extremely delicate,” he said.
Alessandro Pagano
“That RAI has long since abdicated its function as a public service is an incontrovertible fact, requiring a hard and firm reaction, especially when public television conveys misleading messages to support a certain lobby, violating every rule of professional conduct as well as the principles of pluralism, equality and impartiality in the dispute,” Pagano said.
A parliamentary petition is being circulated protesting RAI’s decision which will be sent to the president of the government commission monitoring RAI programming. The first signature on the petition is that of Senator Maurizio Gasparri.
Pagano continued in a statement, saying that the reality of the homosexualist lobby is “quite different” from the media’s presentation. These, he said, are the “true intolerant fundamentalists who are the very people trying to impose ‘gender ideology’ in ways that border on the [fascist] ‘squads’.”
He cited a recent example in Turin in which members of a homosexualist lobby group attacked a meeting discussing the “beauty of the traditional family threatened by the gender [ideology]” that was broken up by “intimidation and violent protests”.
“Given that the initiative had no ‘homophobic’ content,” Pagano added, “much less harmful to the dignity of anyone, but was instead a cultural and scientific event, with what right are freedom of thought and expression censored in this way?
The matter, he said “should be the subject of urgent parliamentary calls for serious and quiet reflection by all political forces”.
